I Can’t Find the Copyright Owner. What Next?

(30 Oct) The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers and the Professional/Scholarly Division of the Association of American Publishers have issued a statement on orphan works, or copyrighted materials whose owners cannot be found. The opinion of the trade associations “is that private market solutions are almost always to be preferred, since they are the most likely to provide tangible results, and that solution is put forward in the new ‘safe harbor’ document. Users who conduct such a search where the owner of such a work is later identified, will be subject only to a normal license fee and will not be subject to any statutory, punitive or special fees or damages.”‘